Marc Solomon, executive director of MassEquality, said the organizaton would hold its own community forums across the state in an effort to convince people who were active during the marriage fight to get involved in pass the transgender rights bill. Solomon said he will ask MassEquality’s gay and lesbian supporters to fight for the bill both as a matter of social justice and because the bill will offer protections to the entire LGBT community.

"It’s not that difficult to get people to that place because gay and lesbian people are discriminated against for their gender identity and gender expression," said Solomon.

A recent survey of more than 6,000 middle and high school students in the United States found that a majority of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students surveyed said they experienced harassment at school in the past year.